Berezovsky death probe: LIVE UPDATES

Russia's self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky was reportedly found dead in a bathtub at his house near London, on Saturday, aged 67. Thames Valley Police have launched an investigation into the cause of his death.

22:45 GMT: Results of
Berezovsky's post-mortem examination show his death to be
"consistent with hanging," British police said Monday
night.

18:51 GMT:It is expected a conclusion to the
investigation actions will take a few more days. Meanwhile, the
Russian Prosecutor General’s Office may reclaim the foreign assets
of Boris Berezovsky. The tycoon had been accused of several major
economic crimes, for which the Russian criminal code reserves the
right to confiscate assets.

12:16 GMT:Berezovsky’s autopsy results will be
available as soon as Tuesday, FederalPress reported.

11:00 GMT: BorisBerezovsky was reportedly
paranoid about security because of several previous attempts on his
life. He surrounded himself with highest levels of security
available and his bodyguards included ex-members of the Israeli
secret service Mossad, The Sun reported. When the tycoon traveled
outside the UK, his guards were often armed. For years he avoided
public airlines and only used a private jet.

10:20 GMT: Berezovsky's former wife, Galina Besharova,
told Nikolay Glushkov, one of Berezovsky's oldest friends, that she
arrived to the house when a paramedic was still on the scene and
saw a scarf near the body of the deceased. "Boris was strangled.
Either he did it himself or with the help of someone. [But] I don't
believe it was suicide. This was not just a normal death," Glushkov
told The Guardian.

10:00 GMT: Thames Valley Police Detective Chief Inspector
Kevin Brown noted that “it would be wrong to speculate on the cause
of death until the postmortem has been carried out. We do not have
any evidence at this stage to suggest third-party involvement.”

March 25

16:51 GMT: Police also explained why chemical and
radiation investigators were summoned to the scene:

"On leaving the property the personal electronic dosimeter
(PED) of the paramedic was triggered. This is a health and safety
device used extensively by the emergency services. As a result of
this, specialist CBRN officers were asked to confirm that the scene
was safe and clear to work in, which they subsequently
did."

16:50 GMT: An employee of Berezovsky’s, working either a
servant or a security man, hadn’t seen the tycoon since late
Friday, police say. He was the only one at home at the moment of
Berezovsky’s death.

"The employee said that he forced open the bathroom door
which was locked from the inside and discovered the body of Mr
Berezovsky on the floor. The paramedic who attended the scene
declared life extinct," Thames Valley Police department said in
a statement.

16:15 GMT: British police say there is no evidence to
suggest third-party involvement in the sudden death of Boris
Berezovsky. Police refuse to speculate on the cause of death until
an autopsy is completed.

13:15 GMT: Political analyst and Russian State Duma MP
Vyacheslav Nikonov believes Berezovsky may have not been bankrupt,
but just pretending. He indeed lost a lot of money in a court
action against another Russian magnate, Roman Abramovich, as well
as to ex-wives, nevertheless Berezovsky “was always in the gray
zone, at best. I don’t think that anyone has any idea about the
real state of Berezovsky’s finance,” Nikonov told RT.

Watch RT’s full interview with Vyacheslav Nikonov

12:05 GMT: Police are to release more information on
Berezovsky at 13:00 GMT. A post mortem will not take place today,
RT London Bureau reports.

11:35 GMT: Chemical and radiation investigators give the
scene of Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky's death the all
clear, according to Thames Valley Police.

11:00 GMT: Berezovsky’s relatives are sure his death was
from natural causes, according to Interfax.

10:45 GMT: Moscow may consider holding Boris Berezovsky’s
funeral in Russia, should the relevant address be received,
President Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti.
Speaking of the deceased tycoon, Peskov pointed out that he used to
be a significant political figure in the 1990s, but he “wouldn’t
overestimate his role in the 2000s, it’s minimal.” The press
secretary also indicated that Berezovsky was “definitely Putin’s
opponent, not only in politics, but in other dimensions as
well.”

March 24

02:00 GMT: A friend of Mr. Berezovsky, Sasha Nerozina,
has said she finds nothing suspicious in his death, in a
conversation with Sky News. "There is nothing to be suspicious
about, as far as I understand...he was demoralized", said
Nerozina, referring to his high-profile court battle against
oligarch and former business partner Roman Abramovich.

01:00 GMT: Journalist Ben Aris, who has been interviewing
Berezovsky on and off for 15 years, believes that suicide may not
be a surprising conclusion to make, given the vast differences
between doing business in the UK and Russia: "he was finding it
very difficult to adapt business-wise to working out of Russia.
British banks finding out that it was his money they were holding
would often close and cancel him. The whole model of being
connected and pulling strings inside the Kremlin in order to make
money just doesn't work in London...so his business was sliding
backward slowly...he just gave up his office since he had this
court order slapped, [which] froze $200 million of his money. So
the suicide speculation makes sense as, clearly, it wasn't going
well."

00:23 GMT:Specially trained officers -
including Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear
specialists (CBRN) - are at the scene. CBRN is conducting tests and
precautionary searches in order to enable a further investigation
into the death.The Thames Valley Police have cordoned off the
property at Mill Lane, Ascot, where the body was discovered,
according to an official statement. The body is still on-site
at this time.

11:30 GMT:"I see no point in living", Boris
Berezovsky said mere hours before his death in what was to be an
off-the-record interview to Forbes (published posthumously). He
reportedly did not look well and was in very low spirits, trying to
avoid talking about business and politics. The interview had been
scheduled for the previous day, but Berezovsky complained of
falling ill with a cold. In the course of the interview, he said
that even while in the UK, he had started having a burning desire
to return to Russia - perhaps even to once again pursue science (he
had degrees in Electronics and Mathematics).

11:15 GMT:Take a look at the highs and lows of the controversial
man once considered to be among the most powerful Russians in
recent history.

20:32 GMT: Commenting on the news from London, President
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that recently Berezovsky
had been in personal contact, asking the president for forgiveness
for his “mistakes” and permission to return “to [his]
motherland”.

“Some time ago, maybe a couple of months ago, Berezovsky
addressed Putin in a letter, written by him personally, in which he
admitted he made a lot of mistakes and was asking for forgiveness
and to help him to return to the motherland,” Peskov told
Russia 24 channel.

In reference to that letter, political analyst Sergey Strokan of
Russia's Komersant newspaper says that Berezovsky "probably
tried to make a deal with Putin, thinking he could do it in the way
it was done in the time of Yeltsin, in the 90s, when politics was
done through such behind-the-scenes deals - unofficial
understandings - between oligarchs and politicians. But it seems it
didn't work because we had not seen Berezovsky come to Russia in
recent weeks."

Strokan continued on the subject of Berezvosky's legacy: "He
was one of the most bright and controversial figures in recent
Russian history. I think [his] name is a trademark of Russian
politics in the 90s, when we had official power of the president
and PM and an unofficial power of the 'semi-bankirshina'
(referring to bankers - Russian slang) who were very articulate
in Boris Yeltsin's era and were running things in Russia. But this
time, luckily, has gone forever."

20:30 GMT: Aleksandr Dobrovinksy, a famous lawyer and
head of the Moscow-based 'The Alexander Dobrovinsky & Partners'
law firm, is one of the first to confirm the death of Berezovsky,
suggesting he could have committed suicide.

Speaking to RT he said: “Two people called me around 8pm saying
Berezovsky had died. One told it was suicide, and the second person
said he might have died of a heart attack. I previously heard from
people close to Berezovsky that he was practically broke and
utterly depressed. A person I know called me and said that
Berezovsky even asked to borrow $ 5,000 for a ticket. He was also
seriously ill.”

20:15 GMT:"Yes, he is dead. It was confirmed to me by
his private lawyer this afternoon," Tim Bell, Berezovsky's
spokesman to AFP by phone. He also confirms that Berezovsky's body
had been discovered by his security guard.

20:05 GMT: RT's Sara Firth spoke to the Thames Valley
Police, who declined to refer to the deceased as Boris Berezovsky
before a full ID confirmation was made - expected later tonight.
They also did not confirm or deny that the tycoon's body had been
discovered in a bathtub.

20:00 GMT: Damian
Kudryavtsev, the former CEO of Kommersant Publishing House and a
family friend, announces that the businessman died of heart
attack around 11 am GMT.

16:00 GMT:
Berezovsky’s son-in-law Egor Schuppe posts a status on Facebook,
giving no details regarding the nature of his death.

15:18 GMT: A call to
the ambulance is made from the Berezovsky household in Ascot,
Berkshire.